Games as Learning

Description

Many games have aspects of
learning about them.
These provide key ways in which players gain pleasure from playing the game.

The learning has to be challenging enough for the player to be
stimulated,
but must not be so hard that the players is unable to learn. What players seek
is a continuous sequence of 'aha's and proof that they have succeeded and
improved.

The learning may have no direct application in the real world but still
creates skills and provides
pleasure within the context of the game. The game may also be designed
deliberately as a vehicle for teaching, with direct and applicable value gained
from the learning during play.

Example

A game has a leaderboard that shows players and their skill
levels. a player works to go up one level every week.

A person joins a local sports team and enjoys the training and
subsequent feelings of competence and success. After a couple of years they
reach their natural maximum skill. A year later they give up as they are no
longer getting better.

A game designer creates a game that adds new skills to learn at
each level, along with new artefacts that the player can use.

Discussion

The brain rewards us for two things, both of which have
evolutionary
benefit. First is recognizing familiar patterns, a useful skill than helps keep
us alive by recognizing threats and managing our environment. Beyond this, we
are rewarded for identifying new patterns and other learning that helps us cope
with new situations.

Designing games that provide a continuous stream of learning that is both
challenging yet not impossible for each player is a particular challenge in
itself for the game designer. Different people have different knowledge and
skills. They have different
learning styles
and learn at different rates.

One way that learning can be sustained during a computer game is to use a
dynamic engine that assesses the player's learning style and ability and varies
what is presented as a result. Another route is to add random elements that the
player does not realize and so they think they have learned when perhaps they
have not.

Explicitly telling people they have learned can help. A typical device to indicate learning is 'levels'. As you go up levels, you
are assumed to be more competent, typically as the levels get progressively more
difficult. Another way is the awarding of points. People with more points are
assumed to have learned more.

In more traditional competitive games, people learn by finding playing
partners who are at a similar level to them or who can still provide learning
opportunities.

The learning that a person does can be compared with themselves, for example
gaining skills or acquiring more knowledge or artefacts. Learning may also be
comparative in that a person who can beat someone who used to be better than
them has the added satisfaction of knowing they are learning faster than others.

Even when learning is applicable only within the game, the player gains
mental stimulation and is learning to learn. Virtually any learning is hence
better than no learning.